Editing your EA models is provided directly in Eclipse and, with one click, Java or C++ code (or also other languages) can be automatically generated. But also reverse engineering existing source code into UML models is possible. After connecting your EA models to Java, C++, or other languages, models and code are live synchronized. If you change your model elements, the modifications are automatically updating the dedicated source code and vice versa. Thus, a full round-trip engineering process is provided.

The EA projects are visualized in an own Eclipse view as depicted on the right side of the screenshot below. Next to this view, EA’s UML editor is depicted. The connected source code, i.e., Java in our case, can be maintained inside the workspace of Eclipse as depicted on the left side of this screenshot. By selecting a model element it can be easily navigated to the dedicated position in the Java code.

For more information including the installation guidelines and the user guide we kindly refer to the website of the Sparx Systems.

Der Kongress bietet mit Keynotes, Fachvorträgen, Ausstellungsbereich, Tutorials und Workshops umfassende Möglichkeiten der Weiterbildung und des Networkings im Bereich Software.

Wenn Sie keine Zeit zum Besuch des Vortrags haben, finden Sie demnächst eine Zusammenfassung in diesem Blog bzw. auf unserer Homepage.

Nähere Informationen auf www.software-quality-days.com

For the Credits
idea: Alexander Horn, Kevin Barwich
implementation: Kevin Barwich
Music: Louis Armstrong, Pink Panther, Kevin Barwich

Some of the changes:

- [AdvancedSearch]    search by type
- [ElementDetails]    display tablerecord also for types method, connector, attribute, diagram
- [ExecuteSQL]        removed syntax highlighting due it was buggy
- [All]                updated IAHost components; sorting Context-Menu Entries (e.g. Element Details back on top)

Latest Version is available here: LieberLieber_EnArSpy_1.2.49

All changes + Dokumentation: Overview.pdf

Have fun!

To complete the confusion: the property tab also has been named “Behavior”

The property dialog has been changed between EA 8.0 and EA 9.0, the issue has remain. Summary If you want that EA considers your code during code generation please note:

• for class operations use “Initial Code:” input window for manual coding
• for class operations use “Behavior” window for linking it to a behavior only
• for state operations use “Behavior” window only for everything

If you want to understand the reason behind that, see below for explanation:

By the way, the AMUSE 2.0 (coming soon) provides a number of really helpful validation rules, e.g. in that case AMUSE warns the user  about the code will be ignored by the code generation

Is there any logic at all in that? Yes it is logically and the reason is the definition of behaviors and operations in UML. So what is the relation between behaviors and operations and how EA does support that concept? Per definition a classifier (e.g Class) may have operations and behaviors:

• An operation = method declaration - like method declaration in C++ header files
• A behavior = method definition – like method definition in C++ cpp files EA supports 4 behavior-types : state machine, activity, interaction (e.g. sequence) and rule flow.

That means you have two ways for definition of the operation behavior (implementation):

• using “Initial Code:” input window for manual coding (like method definition in header files C++)
• using “Behavior” window to link it to a dedicated behavior via button “Element” in EA 9.0 or “…” in EA 8.0

BUT a State within a state machine may also have operations (entry, exit, do)! For that reason EA provides the same dialog for behavior definition of state operations. What about that? The same rules? It would be too easy Because (it’s my guess) a state is an integral part of a behavior, the “Initial Code” window is useless in the dialog. => Whatever you want to do, use “Behavior” input window for definition of state operations.

BR RB

New in this version:

• ElementDetails: all collections are loaded in-depth (except Element- or Package- Collections). Therefore you open an element and see it’s operations and their parameters.
  There’s also an option to display the database-record of the current element or package.

• Filtergram: find objects in the current diagram by any property (only non-collections are supported yet)

• eaLauncher: now supports addin-registrations in Local Machine hive introduced with EA 9.0.

For more details see the documentation.

If you already installed Version 1.0 (from here): there is no need to uninstall. Version 1.2.1 will replace previous versions automatically.

Requirements: .NET 3.5 & Enterprise Architect 8 or above.

Downloads are here:
Setup: v1.2.1
Documentation: Overview
Demo-Video: 1080i (taken from v1.0)

Your Feedback is welcome! Mail to us, or drop a comment in this topic’s details.

Two important things are explained:

• Instances vs. Classes
• Methods vs. Operations

Full read: http://geertbellekens.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/uml-best-practice-one-operation-one-sequence-diagram/

This announcements is part of our strategy to continue our work around LieberLieber AMUSE and bespoke add-in development for our international customer base.

Watch out for further announcements in the next weeks!

Here comes the full story:

LieberLieber has a strong focus on customization and is a specialist developer of plug-ins for Enterprise Architect. Due to its close cooperation with SparxSystems Central Europe since 2005, LieberLieber has developed a unique expertise in UML Simulation and Execution, resulting in their flagship product LieberLieber AM|USE for Enterprise Architect.

LieberLieber is committed to delivering innovative solutions for their global customers in the Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Medical Products, Embedded Systems and all other industries which have already realized the power of Enterprise Architect and want to optimize their development toolchain.

VAR services include:

• UML code generation for embedded systems
• Consulting (Toolchain integration, UML simulation & execution)
• Migration planning and support
• Custom plug-ins
• Customizing Enterprise Architect
• Bespoke code generation templates
• Free tools for Enterprise Architect customers like ENAR SPY, EA Presenter

Introduction

CaliberRM is a requirements management tool from Microfocus and is widely used by organisations to manage their corporate requirements.
Enterprise Architect is a modelling tool focusing on UML and Business Process Modelling from SparxSystems and is used extensively by organisations for all their modelling needs.
A common need is for corporations to manage traceability between their Models and their Requirements. Whilst Enterprise Architect can capture Requirements it is not really a Requirements Management tool per se, and CaliberRM has no modelling functionality at all.
The objective of this Add-In is therefore to implement an integration bridge between the two products, specifically the ability to import and synchronise Requirements from CaliberRM into Enterprise Architect modelling projects where the traceability can be managed and reported.

Agenda

The agenda for this webinar is as follows:

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At that place I’d like to say a big thank you to Walter van der Heiden who allowed me to reuse some slides from his impressive presentation I enjoyed some times on the development conferences .

Please find here a video that demonstrates our solution for the Keil environment and ARM RTOS

Couple weeks ago we presented our solution for embedded development at the embedded world Conference 2011 for the first time . Today I’m at the Electronics Fair Exhibition in the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Center and present the solution in Asia market. The most of the local development companies need more time to realize the demand for Model Driven Design and Development (MDD) than the European companies, but there is mind change on the way, in particular in the embedded world. The embedded market is one of most competitive and the companies are under pressure to decrease time-to-market. The MDD one of the essential instruments for arriving that target and that what we present to our potential customers here.

How ever me and my colleagues from Sparx Systems Australia we created a new video that demonstrates the usage of the embedded tool kit including Enterpise Architect, AMUSE, Willert Tools and Keil IDE. I like it and would like to share it with you, please enjoy!

And here the same staff as flash video with higher quality:

It’s a kind of “Hello World” for multiple machines, simplest possible example
Two state machines fires triggers to each other: Ping fires ping trigger and receives pong trigger and pong works another way around.

1. Download XMI
2. Create an empty Enterprise Architect project
3. Import XMI
4. Open ping and pong state machine diagrams
5. Add both to AMUSE simulation window
6. Start pong first then ping
7. if initial ping wasn’t caught, fire first trigger manually via trigger menu
8. watch the ping/pong counters

How you can do that in a simple way? In that case you typically need to:

1. setup an Visual Studio Project and take care of some settings (e.g. usage of 3.5 NET); 2. develop a form; 3. compile the VS project into assembly; 4. import the form into your EA model, AMUSE reverse engineers it from the assembly and create a form class; 5. create an attribute in the class, that contains the state machine of type of reverse engineered form class; 6. connect form events with the state machine triggers; 7. initialize your form at state machine initializing phase
We recommend not import the form class directly but rather to create a wrapper class that contains only the events and methods you really need for modeling, otherwise the reverse engineered form class contains too much stuff inherited from the Form basis class. That means you have basically one more step to do.

The described procedure is not really complex and after performing it once you have a reusable template. In addition you develop and test the UI in very comfortable VS development environment.

But what if the usage of VS is not an option or you just want to perform the whole modeling using EA environment only?
– Not a problem at all . Following XMI contains a simple model including an integrated Windows Form: simple model including an integrated Windows Form
Please find below the corresponding video:

The idea is as simple as the implementation itself. First of all we have to know which .NET assemblies are referenced by AMUSE and therefore are available for behavior programming: System; System.Core; System.Data; System.XML; WindowsBase and most important for us System.Windows.Forms
Following steps are to do:

1. create an attribute e.g. testDialog of type System.Windows.Forms.Form with following initial value: new System.Windows.Forms.Form()
2. create a method e.g. ShaowDialog() responsible for the form initialization. Please find the example initial code below:

//the layout panel is required for positioning of controls we create below
System.Windows.Forms.FlowLayoutPanel MyFlowLayoutPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.FlowLayoutPanel();

//ensure that we create controls and add them to the form only once
//later on if the form is closed or hidden just show it again
if(testDialog.Controls.Count < 1)
{
    testDialog.Text = "Loginform";

    System.Windows.Forms.Label NameLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); 
    NameLabel.Text = "UserName";
    MyFlowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(NameLabel);

    System.Windows.Forms.TextBox NameBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
    NameBox.Name = "NameBox";
    MyFlowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(NameBox);

    System.Windows.Forms.Label PasswordLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
    PasswordLabel.Text = "Pasword";
    MyFlowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(PasswordLabel);

    System.Windows.Forms.TextBox PasswordBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
    PasswordBox.Name = "PasswordBox";
    PasswordBox.PasswordChar = '*';
    MyFlowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(PasswordBox);

    System.Windows.Forms.Button CloseButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
    CloseButton.Text = "Submit";
    MyFlowLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(CloseButton);

    testDialog.Controls.Add(MyFlowLayoutPanel);

    //prevent hiding the dialog
    testDialog.TopMost = true;
    //connect button click event to the class operation OnSubmit
    CloseButton.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.OnSubmit);
}
testDialog.ShowDialog();

3. Create form event handler class operation e.g. OnSubmit(). Please find the example initial code below:

//TODO:: error handling

//get the form from event args
System.Windows.Forms.Form myForm = ((System.Windows.Forms.Control)sender).FindForm();

//assign the strings from the name and password boxes to corresponding class attributes
this.Username = ((System.Windows.Forms.Control)myForm.Controls.Find("NameBox", true)[0]).Text;
this.Password = ((System.Windows.Forms.Control)myForm.Controls.Find("PasswordBox", true)[0]).Text;

testDialog.Close();

//fire trigger by calling identically named TriggerEvent method
trigIdentificationDone();

4. Finally dispose dialog at state machine finalization e.g. implemented in a separate class operation DisposeDialog(). Please find the example initial code below:

testDialog.Close();
testDialog.Dispose();

That’s it.

Enjoy!

I would like to share the brief feature-comparison between Enterprise Architect enhanced by AMUSE and Rhapsody. The comparison is based on the public available information:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/products/rhapsody/sysarchitect/ and
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/products/rhapsody/developer/

EA/AMUSE vs. Rhapsody Architect/Designer for Systems Engineers

EA/AMUSE vs. Rational Rhapsody Developer